I really enjoyed the original film and am just about to go see the sequel. Here’s:
- The official site (which includes several downloadable episodes of the Animatrix animated series that runs alongside the films
- Killer Movies’ overview with spoilers and
- a study guide that explores Plato’s cave using the (first) film.
LaterI just saw it and didn’t think much of it I have to say. It’s hard to get excited about fight scenes no matter how virtuosic if the hero is never in any real danger and you can only get a frisson of excitement from having your head messed like The Matrix did once – now that the pattern is established it has become dull.
Jesse Walker wrote a review on his weblog that hit the nail on the head, ending with this amusing riff:
My fantasy for how the trilogy should conclude: After learning that absolutely every level of reality is just another matrix, The One shrugs his shoulders and walks off the film set. A digital camera follows him across the street to a lecture hall, where a professor is denouncing metafiction and declaring postmodernism a literary dead end. Keanu’s cell phone rings: It’s his agent. We hear them chatting about how much they’re making from all that Matrix tie-in merchandising. Then the wall collapses and the cast of Blazing Saddles falls into the lecture room, throwing pies.
